Sage Advice

More and more businesses going mobile

See more people using their smart phones, laptops, and tablets … even around the office? You’re not the only one.

More businesses are finding it beneficial to be mobile. In fact 68% of businesses Sage surveyed found smartphones have a positive effect on company productivity, equal to laptops. What’s more surprising is that 90% of businesses we surveyed indicated employees provided their own smartphones to do company work.

So how can going mobile help? Businesses told us:

70% positive effect on customer service.

32% positive effect on getting business done, in spite of bad weather.

21% positive effect on bringing more business to the company, like sales.

20% positive effect on employee connectivity, like offsite meetings.

What we found surprising is that 77% of companies didn’t budget for mobile devices. See the results: infographic and survey.

What can you do?

1. Build mobile into your budget, especially where it counts.

There are a lot of time-saving apps out there these days, including Sage products. There are products on the market for customer service, sales, invoicing, and even self-service human resources. And there are customers that enable you to take mobile and make it easily accessible through the cloud.

It seems employees don’t expect company cellphones in order to do business on the company’s behalf. The same may be true about laptops and tablets. If it makes sense for your employees and company, consider taking that money you’re saving and give some back to the employee. Don’t forget about process changes you’ll need, like cloud solutions to help ensure information is backed up.

3. Think about the types of devices you’ll want to support as well as your footprint.

Just because employees are bringing their own devices doesn’t mean you won’t run into trouble. Support may be more difficult. Consider using apps that can serve multiple platforms (for example iOS or Android) easily. Also, have people on staff that can people on those platforms.

4. Consult experts.

Each business may have a unique set of problems. At Sage Summit this year, we have a host of business leaders who’ve made the move providing ideas as well as how to avoid pitfalls.